My aim is to offer insights into some of the more subtle principles underpinning prints. The commentary is based on thirty-eight years of teaching and the prints and other collectables that I am focusing on are those which I have acquired over the years.
In the galleries of prints (accessed by clicking the links immediately below) I am also adding fresh images offered for sale. If you get lost in the maze of links, simply click the "home" button to return to the blog discussions.

State vi/vi? This attribution of the
state is based on the details of this print correlating with the impression
held by the BM (1853,0312.325). Note that the NGA proposes that there are five
states in total and the BM advises there are six states.

Condition: richly inked, faultless impression
trimmed with narrow margins around the plate mark. The sheet is in pristine
condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains, foxing or
signs of use), backed with a support sheet of archival (millennium quality)
washi paper.

I am selling this magnificently glowing etching
by one of the most important artists of the Enlightenment in Poland for AU$326
(currently US$241.75/EUR206.70/GBP184.02 at the time of posting this print)
including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course,
any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this
masterwork from the 1700s following in the tradition of Rembrandt, please
contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal
invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

This is one of Norblin’s masterworks and
I suspect that few viewers would disagree with FL Leipnik (1924) in his
proposal that Norblin is “an etcher of rare qualities” (p. 61).

Regarding these “rare qualities” that I
see in this beautiful etching, note how Norblin adds the smallest touches of dark
line to the silhouette edge of Susanna’s legs. These dark accents are laid
where the skin comes close to the bone and they help to “tighten” the contours of her legs. By contrast the more fleshy sections of Susanna’s legs are left with
only a light outline so that a viewer’s eye can sensually slip around the
modelling of these more rounded contours.

There is also the artist’s dramatic use
of light and shade that helps to create an aura of mystery where subject matter can only
be partly seen. Just as important, note also the subtle gradations from cross-hatching to single lines, from single lines to dots, and from dots to the untouched paper, to pictorially carve and model the
portrayed figures in space.